152 



Missouri Agricultural Report. 



do you feed your spring pigs on pasture after weaning?" Replying 

 to this question, the eighty-three who use blue grass or timothy as 

 their principal pasture, answered as follows : 



No. of 



replies. 



Percent of 

 whole. 



Corn alone 



Middlings, shorts or shipstufl 



Oilmeal 



Tankage or meat meal 



Bran 



Milk... 



Rye, wheat or oats 



Oats 



Wheat 



Rye 



These replies show that when the corn is supplemented by a more 

 nitrogenous feed, the preference is for some wheat by-product, 33.7 

 per cent, using shorts, middlings, or shipstuffs and 7.2 per cent, bran; 

 22.9 per cent, feed milk, while 13.3 per cent, feed linseed oil meal, 

 and 8.4 per cent., either tankage or meat meal, and a smaller per cent, 

 some mixture of oats, rye or wheat. These figures refer to the time 

 just following weaning when the pig is being started to growing well 

 after being weaned. As the shoat gets larger, it is common practice 

 to increase the amount of corn, and in most cases to decrease the 

 amount of slop or stop feeding it altogether. While in general it 

 gives faster gains to feed a supplement to corn, a pig that has received 

 a ration containing sufficient bone and muscle-forming food until six 

 months old, will do very well until ready for market on corn alone. 

 Until a pig is six months old, however, unless on a good clover, alfalfa, 

 cowpea or rape pasture, in order to get best results should receive 

 something besides straight corn. 



The amount of feed to be given varies with the purpose of the 

 feeder, as to whether the pig is intended for market at six to seven 

 months of age, or at eight to ten months, or older. This fact is true, 

 however, that pigs can be made so fat before they have reached a 

 weight at which it is profitable to sell them, that they will not make 

 a satisfactory gain. On the other hand, too little feed, especially on 

 timothy or blue grass pasture, leaves the pig somewhat stunted and 

 inflicts a permanent injury. The gist of the information as to the 

 amount of grain to feed, learned from our correspondents, is to keep 

 the pigs in good groMnng condition, but not excessively fat until time 

 to put on full feed for market. Many of our correspondents feed the 

 pigs rather heavily from the start, and have them ready for market 



